Tell It to the Judge
by foreverHenry919
Summary: Henry and Adam sue each other and wind up in Judge Judy's courtroom.***


Announcer: Lewis Farber aka Adam is suing his fellow Immortal, Henry Morgan, for assault, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with intent to inflict bodily harm, lost wages, medical bills, mental anguish, slander, and punitive damages when he injected him with an air bubble causing him to endure 31 months of Locked-In Syndrome.

Henry Morgan is countersuing, claiming that the Plaintiff stalked him for eight months, kidnapped him and killed him by drowning him in a cab, stole one of his medical tools and used it to incriminate him in a murder, burglarized his residence and stole a valuable antique handgun from his safe, threatened him multiple times, killed him again with his own handgun, tricked him into killing someone else, all of which caused him to suffer mental anguish. He is also suing for back pay and punitive damages.

Bailiff Byrd: All rise, court is in-session the Honorable Judge Judy now presiding. All parties involved in Farber v Morgan and Morgan v Farber come forward.

Henry and Adam approach and Byrd directs them to their assigned podiums.

Judge Judy: Mr. Farber aka Adam, before we get started, for the purposes of these proceedings, how are we to address you?

Adam: I prefer Adam, Your Honor.

Judge Judy: Adam. I'm not going to ask you why, although that sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. And it is one of your claims that the defendant owes you for lost wages

Adam: Yes, it is, Your Honor.

Judge Judy: Lost wages concerning what, sir?

Adam : For the time that I was in the hospital after he assaulted me. The pay that I normally would have received during that time as a Therapist -

Judge Judy: What type of Therapist?

Adam: I'm a psychiatrist.

Henry rolls his eyes and scoffs.

Judge Judy: Shush! You'll get your turn (to Henry). Continue (to Adam).

Adam: My usual pay during those many months that I was flat on my back in a wak-ing com-a (shoots a sideways glare in Henry's direction) would have been far greater than the state disability payments of 70% of my salary for the first three months, then 55% for the remainder of my disability.

Judge Judy: What is your educational background in psychiatry, sir?

Henry raises his right hand to his mouth, rubs his two middle fingers across his lips but makes an O to signify zero with his index finger and thumb. Adam closes his eyes and points an accusing finger at Henry.

Judge Judy: Mr. Morgan, stop behaving like a child. If you keep this up, I'll hold you in contempt! (Nods again at Adam).

Adam: I– background in psychiatry is – I have a bachelor's in Psychiatry from Yale -

Judge Judy: So you have a bachelor's degree in Psychiatry.

Adam: Yes, and I have bachelor's degrees in Psychology, Science, Education, Criminal Justice, and AA degrees in Culinary Arts, Fashion, and Dance. I have been employed in the Psychiatry Department of Bellevue Hospital since 1949.

Henry begins to scowl because the image of Adam prancing around in either a leotard or a tutu is both sickening and hilarious to him. But remembering the judge's earlier threat about holding him in contempt, he schools his features and bites his tongue.

Judge Judy: Impressive (but she's clearly not impressed). So let's concentrate on your claim for lost wages that you say you lost because you weren't able to perform your normal duties as a psychiatrist, am I right?

Adam: Yes, ma'am.

Judge Judy: Go back to Your Honor. It's Your Honor, not ma'am. (Adam closes his eyes and nods). Do you have proof of what your earnings would have been during the time of your incapacity, which you claim occurred after the Defendant assaulted you?

Adam: Yes, ma- Your Honor.

Judge Judy: Let's see it.

Bailiff Byrd walks over to Adam, takes some papers from him, which he then passes to the judge. She shuffles through them, studying them briefly, then asks Adam for a figure.

Adam: Approximately -

Judge Judy: Not approximate! How much pay did you lose, sir?

Adam: Based on my yearly salary of $175,00, it comes to $30,624 for the first three months plus $285,824 for the last 28 months, so $316,448.

Judge Judy: That's quite a bit of money, Mr. Adam.

Adam: Just Adam, Your Honor (looking very self-pleased with his chosen moniker).

Judge Judy: Excuse me?

Adam: Adam is my first name, actually, my only name.

Judge Judy stares at him, curls her lips up into a sarcastic smile, and shakes her head and quietly tells him that she doesn't care. Ridiculous, she repeats. She finally turns her attention to an impatient but outwardly patient Henry.

Judge Judy: Mr. Morgan, do you have a full-time job?

Henry: Yes, Your Honor, I work as a Medical Examiner with the City of New York.

Judge Judy: And your counterclaim contains as many or more accusations against the Plaintiff as his does against you. It appears that you two have recently been very busy with bothering each other.

Henry: He started it, Your Honor. I finished it. (Courtroom observers chuckle softly).

Adam: For now. (Ooo's from the courtroom observers as the two Immortals glare at each other).

Judge Judy: Like I told him a while ago, keep quiet. You've had your say! (Turning her attention back to Henry, she asks him what the lost wages are for and how much).

Henry: After he sent someone to break into my home and threaten my son and me with a sword -

Judge Judy: (repeatedly slapping her hands, palm down, on the top of the bench). I didn't ask you anything about that! Answer my question about the lost wages, how much and what for?

Henry: Based on my yearly salary of $172,000, it comes to $12,287 for the three weeks and three days that I was out on stress leave after being forced to kill in self-defense, the intruder he sent to my home. An intruder that he sent to break into my home and threaten my son and me with a sword.

Judge Judy: Again, with the sword (muttering). You have proof that he sent someone to do that to you and your son?

Henry: Proof. He was a patient of his! I know that he did.

Judge Judy: It requires a Yes or No answer!

Henry: Yes, yes, Your Honor. I recall now that he admitted to me in a phone call later the same evening that I'd killed the intruder. Who was a psychopathic, serial killer just like he is.

Judge Judy: (to Adam) Did you send someone to break into his house and threaten him and his son with a sword?

Adam: I ... merely suggested. The person acted on their own.

Judge Judy: (disgusted). So you admit it?

Adam: Um ...

Judge Judy: 'Um' is not an answer. Answer the question.

Adam: Yes, Your Honor.

Judge Judy: (casting a world-weary smile at Henry). Congratulations. An admission. Let's get back to the lost wages that he says you owe him. Did you attack him as he claims you did? Don't look over there, look here!

Henry: My apologies, Your Honor. After he shot me, yes.

Judge Judy: (closing her eyes and dropping her head, shaking it) What happened?

Henry: We agreed to meet -

Judge Judy: How? Who contacted who?

Adam: He called me.

Judge Judy: Zip it!

Adam: (raising a hand and shaking his head).

Judge Judy: I'm asking him! (back to Henry) How?

Henry: (frowning, a bit lost as to the last question). How, yes, well, I called him.

Judge Judy: Okay. You called him, why?

Henry: He wanted me to bring him a pugio that he said belonged to him.

Judge Judy: A Roman dagger.

Henry: Yes, Your Honor. We met on an abandoned portion of the subway. I gave him the dagger and walked away, thinking that was the end of it. But he had my gun, a flintlock pistol, that he'd stolen from my home and he shot me in the chest with it, killing me.

Judge Judy: (shaking her head at the impossible language). It has been a strange day in May since we've become aware of Immortals in the midst of us. All of this language about killing each other and yet here the two of you are. Excuse me if I have to catch my breath on some of this.

Henry: Excuse me, Your Honor, but I never killed Adam. He killed me three times but I'm only suing for the last two times. (courtroom observers gasp at Henry's words then laugh again, mostly at the seeming audacity of it all and the judge's wearied reaction).

Judge Judy: Humor me. Why not sue him for all three times that he killed you?

Henry: Because in his own twisted way, he was trying to help me. (courtroom erupts in laughter at the judge's pained look of disgust).

Judge Judy: Never mind. (more laughter) So he was being nice to you that time but mean to you the last two times, is that it?

Henry: Yes, Your Honor. (pulls in a deep sigh, pursing his lips, aware of how ridiculous this all must sound to mortals).

Judge Judy: Of course. (snickering from the courtroom observers). I think I've got it. He stalked you at a time when none of us knew that Immortals existed so you couldn't go to the police for help like anybody else, right?

Henry: Yes, Your Honor.

Adam: I didn't stalk him. I just called him a few times and he ignored me.

Judge Judy: He ignored you because you're a creep. (courtroom observers snicker). And contacting someone when they clearly don't want to be contacted is called STALKING! You're a stalker. What happened after you say he shot you in the chest?

Henry: I pretended like I wanted to tell him something, my last words, as it were, so he bent down close enough, allowing me to jab him in his jugular vein with an empty syringe.

Judge Judy: That's what gave him an embolism that brought on his Locked-In condition. Why did he shoot you, Mr. Morgan?

Henry: (sighing) He said that he believed that the weapons that made us this way could also kill us for good. (courtroom is silenced).

Judge Judy: Is that what you believed?

Adam: Yes, Your Honor.

Judge Judy: Well, it's obvious that your theory was wrong. And it was a dirty, lowdown, despicable thing that you did to him, was it not?

Adam: (hesitant)

Judge Judy: Go ahead. You can say it. Because it's true.

Adam: It ... it was, yes.

Judge Judy: It was yes, what?

Adam: Your Honor. (courtroom observers titter).

Judge Judy: And since it was dirty, lowdown and despicable, you deserved everything you got. You stalked him and brought on all this pain and suffering onto yourself. Your claim is dismissed. Dis-missed.

Adam: (shakes head in disgust and fingers the documents he'd brought to court to support his claim)

Judge Judy: And you, Mr. Morgan, what you did to him in return was not in self-defense. It was after he'd shot you, not during a struggle where you managed to come out on top. It was revenge. Quick revenge before you died. So you've gotten even with him already. Your claim is also dismissed.

The judge leaves the bench and Adam and Henry leave the courtroom along with several other observers. Henry walks to the right of the courtroom door, Adam to the left, where they both share their opinions on the proceedings.

Adam: I called him a few times. I just wanted to get to know him, to tell him some things that could help him regarding our condition.

Henry: Harassing phone calls, cryptic notes and letters, delving into my past and upsetting my life.

Adam: He's just a child, as Immortals go. I was trying to help him on his journey.

Henry: He's sick. He's just as sick as the man he sent to kill me.

Adam: So the gun didn't work. He died and came back as usual. No harm, no foul.

Henry: He shot me to see if I would die permanently. Just so he'd know to guard his blasted dagger more carefully. He has no intentions of dying himself.

Adam: He's such a poor sport. It's best that our paths never cross again.

Henry: He's such a coward. I didn't want anything to do with him while he was stalking me and I definitely don't want anything to do with him now.

End scene.

Notes:

The bones of this actual transcript from one of the Judge Judy airings helped me with the format of my story.

.us/local/karen-brown-sued-on-judge-judy-full-transcript-and-recap/tmWlbo-8b0V4hiLazZYU

Yearly salaries for psychiatrists and medical examiners gleaned from Internet.


End file.
